Now that that's out of the way, my name is Jon and I'm from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I'm currently going to University studying Business. I have probably one of the BIGGEST collections of video games that most people will ever see, and my collection of "swag/promos/standees/collectables/soundtracks" is MASSIVE. I'm currently at around 1,500 games, of which I truly enjoy or have bought for collector's value. I also own some of the rarest collectables around.

So, if you read my last blog, I’m running just a LITTLE (pretty much close to 2 months) behind in my blogging and all. Regardless, welcome to yet another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul! This is the somewhat enticing PAX edition, due to the massive amount of swag I was able to get my grubby hands on, and some rare games. So, without further ado, let’s look into what I got!

Let’s start off with a couple of kickass cool posters! Here we have a poster of Penny Arcade’s interpretation of a Big Daddy and Little Sister, just in time for 2K Games’ BioShock 2 trailer. This is one of the few games that I’m really excited for and more importantly . . . ACTUALLY PLAY! *gasp* =O Hahaha!

Now we have a Tekken 6 poster that was advertising a tournament at the Namco booth and all, yet they were only distributed there.

Everyone who went to PAX on the first day got a little bag of random odds and ends and such. Pictured here we have my 3 day pass with The Behemoth lanyard, along with my PAX 2009 Instruction Booklet, 2 PAX 2009 pins that were supposed to be used for like “battling” other attendees, and my concert wristbands for Friday and Saturday night.

Here we have the beginnings of a ton of freebie swag! Rockstar was easily in the top 3 for best swag and such at the expo and all. Their booth may have been pretty small/simplistic, but the stuff they just had lying around for people to get their hands on was beyond awesome. To promote Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for PSP and DS, they had freaking Chinese takeout boxes branded with the logo, filled with little screen wipes, Rockstar, Beaterator, and Ballad of Gay Tony stickers, as well as one of the coolest things I’ve seen swag-wise, CHOPSTICK DS STYLUSES! Along the top you have The Beatles: Rock Band stickers, as well as an Assassin’s Creed II and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction stickers. You’ve also got a Nostalgia luggage tag, a special Dragon Age: Origins keycard only if you stayed at the Sheraton in Seattle, a Dragon Age: Origins inflatable sword, Muramasa: The Demon Blade temporary tattoo, and Military Madness dog tag.

Here we have Mark Meltzer’s Research File, which in reality is a really cool and interesting promo for BioShock 2 that keeps the whole “underthesea” theme and all. Then you have a funny and intuitive Assassin’s Creed II insert, where you have to “force” it open, and you end up beheading a nobleman doing so. Starting on the bottom row, there’s a BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger file folder, followed by Hellenbach and Sabre GT papercrafts for GTA: Chinatown Wars.

Let me tell you that being forced to wait in line to play a demo of a game that’s usually lame or too short, in order to get a cool freebie is absolutely, astoundingly, incredibly LAME! The Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story beanie was totally awesome, but I had to effectively wait in line like 2/3 times for it, since you were FORCED to play the demo to get one, and then you have tards who spend way too much time on it, and they only had 2 “stations” setup for it. It took forever to get, but I probably “wasted” like a total of 1.5 hours or so to spend like less than 5 minutes (since you’re FORCED to play the demo as well) to get it . . . -_-‘ At least it’s hella cool. Then you have a freaking awesome promo for you Tekken fans! That is Heihachi Mishima hair that you put on your ears and headband-like thing to make yourself look like him! After that you have an inflatable Phantasy Star Zero inflatable bird thing, followed below by NOS, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, PNY, and God of War III lanyards.

Starting with a big GTA: Chinatown Wars sticker, we also have a demo of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, and full versions of Shaiya (some free online MMORPG) and easily contender for game of the year . . . HELLO KITTY ONLINE! Woo! How can you go wrong with Keroppi or Badtz-Maru? We also have a Darkest of Days mousepad, some ITT mini-flahlight/keychain, a We Love Golf! promo bag or some other, a Miami Law police badge, Deca Sports 2 wristbands, Divinity II inflatable sword, The Saboteur pin, some Naruto pin, a Heartless pin from Kingdom Hearts, and a couple I <3 Geeks pins.

What we have here is a Muramasa: The Demon Blade . . . quasi-backpack . . . for lack of better term (I still don’t know what these kinds of bags are called). Then in the top right we have probably one of the top things I got in Seattle, which took me until Sunday to get a hold of, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle TOILET PAPER! They kept running out of the ones they handed out, or I couldn’t get the locks off the ones they had in the actual bathrooms, but after some perseverance, I managed to finally get my hands on a roll! ^_^ Those two awesome items are followed up by a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic.

Well, if you’re still reading this, you know I’m compulsive, so for some retarded reason, I decided to keep the little advertising cards and such that some booths handed out. From Hudson, we have a Diner Dash/Military Madness ad, coupled with a Deca Sports 2 one. Capcom gave me Spyborgs and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles cards, while Namco actually gave me a pamphlet of Katamari Forever and Tekken 6.

We have a continuation of cards with ones for Nostalgia, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and Sands of Destruction. You also can see ones for Splosion Man, Global Agenda, and a poorly photographed holographic Katamari Forever trading card (I took like 5 pictures of it included and this was the best one). I also got some downloadable stuff for League of Legends: Clash of Fates, Dungeon Fighter, and Mabinogi.

So, Hamza had a bunch of like extra promo swag he was giving away to fellow Dtoiders at PAX, so from him, I managed to snag a Fatal Fury Hat (been looking for one of these forever), a GTA IV Liberty City Police t-shirt, and an effing awesome Japanese Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness file folder thing covered with Laharl, Etna, and PRINNIES! ^_^ Thanks Hamza! You’re the best! d(‘-‘d)

Time for apparel time! I have an affinity for things that are shiny, so the Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City t-shirt was hella awesome! The Diner Dash apron was also a smart and cool idea by Hudson, and then I have no idea what the company is, but every PAX attendee also got a Blabbelon neon orange t-shirt. Finally, we have a Metroid Prime Trilogy t-shirt that you could only get by playing the game, which was already out at the time, but luckily the guy was cool and all I had to do was double jump to get it, aka, skipping actually “playing” the demo.

Here we have a Raven Industries t-shirt for MAG, the kickass cool Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles zombie t-shirt, and a Red Dead Redemption t-shirt you got for viewing the private trailer, which is actually a game that looks to have a lot of potential.

We end the t-shirts with ones for Brink, Wet, and Darkest of Days. Nothing really special about these ones, but free t-shirts? How am I to say no? I’m kind of pissed I missed out on the Left 4 Dead 2 one, but waiting in line to play the demo to get it was FUCKING GODDAMN RIDICULOUS! Even for me! I also missed the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves PAX exclusive one, which made me somewhat of a sad panda! =(

Okay . . . seriously . . . that has to be one of the most bitchin’ t-shirts EVER! It’s goddamn GANGSTA DOMO-KUN with bling, and gold tooth to boot!!! ^_^ If you look at some of my PAX pictures from my previous blog, I tried to mimic the pose on the t-shirt and all, and it was totally awesome! We also have a bobblehead of easily my favorite Futurama (it’s coming back bitches!) DR. ZOIDBERG! I got these from miscellaneous booths, while at the Capcom one, I picked up the Japanese exclusive Viewtiful Joe and Servbot keychains!

TheCleaningGuy, if you're reading this, I give up! Ever since the end of PAX I've been trying to get your proper name and address and such, since I picked up an extra Servbot Keychain that I got since I know someone would want it, and after hearing how your backpack was stolen, decided it was going to you. I was trying to get your proper address and all from others to surprise you with it, but this has gone on for far too long, hahaha! Private message me the necessary stuff, and you'll have your gift from me to you mate!

Here is the PAX booth of the infamous Pink Godzilla (now Pink Gorilla) store and all. GraveRisen, possumwrangler, and I did visit the actual store the day before PAX, but it was pretty bare bones, but they do have a lot of cool stuff and all. I had to resist blowing a fair chunk of my spending money on a KINGDOM HEARTS DSi that I’ve been wanting for some time, but I couldn’t justify spending $400 on it, although, I did come close . . . >_< One day, I shall have one, which will join my The World Ends With You (or you could say It’s A Wonderful World) DS Lite.

So, you people from the United States have a much bigger game selection and pricing scheme, as opposed to your neighbors to the north! Between Pink Godzilla and a Gamestop in one of the malls, I managed to snag a Final Fantasy Anthology guide (seriously, Chrono Trigger AND Final Fantasy VI on one disc! =3), MetropolisMania, a NON-Greatest Hits Kingdom Hearts (this was the last game from my PS2 collection I had to replace, and in my opinion, the most important one), and Mega Man Anniversary Collection. I should’ve picked up Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades as well, since you guys get it used for $20, as opposed to the $40 they charge in Canada.

Here are a few more games I picked up between Pink Godzilla and a random booth with rare games and GREAT deals. Bomberman Party Edition, yet another ATLUS game, one of the harder to get, but not hardest, ones in Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth, followed by a trio of Dreamcast games in the form of Gauntlet Legends, Sword of the Berserk: Guts’ Rage, and Space Channel 5!

At PAX, Bill Amend did a panel about his love of video games and how he incorporated them into his comic, or in regards to the first picture, how he created an item and a company incorporated it into THEIR game. In case the name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s the creator of the comic FoxTrot! He also did a signing and all, and signed the first one of his books that I got that introduced me to the best newspaper comic, and even drew a picture of Jason greeting myself and my brother (of whom is also a big fan, but didn’t attend PAX).

There was also a long distance RetroForceGO trade that occurred between people from the UK (Tremulant) and Canada (myself). We decided that instead of mailing our games to each other, we’d just meet at PAX and trade in person, and in return, I got a boxed copy of Pilotwings 64 and Harvest Moon 64! Thanks dude, and hopefully we can hang out again next year! =D

Some of the people working at PAX and manning the booths are also some of the most interesting and cool people ever! I talked to a guy at the Muramasa: The Demon Blade/Ignition booth about the game and all, and how in Canada we get scammed on preorder bonuses and such, and asked if he had any of the “wall scroll” (even though it totally isn’t) posters on him. He told me he unfortunately didn’t, but gave me his business card and told me to email him after the expo, and he’d see what he could do for me.

Lo and behold, all I can say is that 47 Communications (the group that apparently does Ignitions’ promo booths and all) is unbelievably effing awesome! =3 I emailed the guy with my address, he responded in less than a day, and he freaking FedEx’d the thing to me. I had it in my hands like a couple days later. So, with that said and done, THANK YOU VERY MUCH MR. ROGERS! If anyone else from 47 Communications reads this blog miraculously, please know that Mr. Rogers is doing a fantastic job and that he is a GREAT asset to your company! ^_^

Well, that does it for yet another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul. As I said, I’m running about 2 months behind and all, so I’m probably going to split my haul over the past couple of months into 2 more manageable blogs, so keep your eyes out for those, as I’ve got some mighty kickass stuff on the way! I've got game number 1,000 coming up as well, so keep an eye out for that!